See how the filmmakers and cast of September 5 created on of the best films of the year in the new Crafts featurette.
September 5 unveils the decisive moment that forever changed media coverage and continues to impact live news today. Set during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, the film follows the ABC Sports broadcasting team who quickly shifted from sports reporting to live coverage of the Israeli athletes taken hostage. Through this lens, September 5 provides an important perspective on the live broadcast seen globally by millions of people at the time.
At the heart of the story is Geoff (John Magaro), a young and ambitious producer striving to prove himself to his boss, the legendary TV executive Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard). Together with German interpreter Marianne (Leonie Benesch) and his mentor Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), the story focuses on the intricate details of the high-tech broadcast capabilities of the time, juxtaposed against the many lives at stake and themoral decisions that needed to be made against an impossible ticking clock.
September 5 unveils the decisive moment that forever changed media coverage and continues to impact live news today. Set during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, the film follows the ABC Sports broadcasting team who quickly shifted from sports reporting to live coverage of the Israeli athletes taken hostage. Through this lens, September 5 provides an important perspective on the live broadcast seen globally by millions of people at the time.
At the heart of the story is Geoff (John Magaro), a young and ambitious producer striving to prove himself to his boss, the legendary TV executive Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard). Together with German interpreter Marianne (Leonie Benesch) and his mentor Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), the story focuses on the intricate details of the high-tech broadcast capabilities of the time, juxtaposed against the many lives at stake and themoral decisions that needed to be made against an impossible ticking clock.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00When I read the script, I thought, yeah, this is one we should jump in on.
00:06The script was remarkable.
00:08I just like films that try to find new ways to tell the story.
00:12The tragedies at the Munich Olympics,
00:15I didn't know that it was covered by a sports news team.
00:18The script for September 5 was such an incredible take on an event that other films have been made about.
00:23But this one puts us right inside the room
00:25as these sports broadcasters navigate this impossible situation.
00:29ABC headquarters want news to take over.
00:31There are still some mysteries about this day, what happened there.
00:36We wanted to have a new approach to the events that took place 1972 in Munich.
00:41This is our story and we're keeping it.
00:44Also, we wanted something that speaks to viewers today.
00:48On September 5, news was changed forever.
00:52What do I tell the cameras?
00:53What do you mean?
00:54I mean, can we show someone being shot on live television?
01:00To tell a story that takes place in one location,
01:03with the monitors being the windows to the outside world,
01:06I found the challenge interesting.
01:09This is where the best set designers make gigantic contributions
01:13in terms of how the surroundings affect the actors.
01:17To build a continuous set, it feels like you are inside this world.
01:22Whenever you found a door, you could open the door and you went to another set.
01:26Working in this environment created this tension.
01:29Cameras!
01:32Get out of my studio!
01:34Incredible practical set.
01:36And we started to do research about what kind of machines can we find
01:42and how can we rebuild such an authentic set.
01:45We went from private collectors to museums,
01:48storage rooms from old TV broadcasters.
01:51Basically, everything that still exists is now in our studio.
01:56It's remarkable because every single machine worked.
02:00If you flip the switch, the light went off and the fax worked.
02:04And headsets that were from the era and television and phones.
02:08It just grounds you in reality.
02:10It was really important that our actors would not stare at a wall of blue screens.
02:14They had to interact with what's happening.
02:16Take two.
02:19I wanted to make these analog screens one of the key light sources.
02:23It's quite an interesting creative tool to use flicker.
02:26As they are watching the masked men,
02:29we really increased the flicker to raise your heartbeat.
02:33To combine what we shot together with the original footage
02:36led to a lot of material.
02:38Our editor, Hans-Jörg Weisbrich, was crucial on shaping the film.
02:43We wanted the film to be high-paced
02:45to allow the audience to be in the situation like our characters.
02:51Piecing that together alone is a challenge.
02:54Then piecing that together with all the actual footage from the Olympics
02:58is another challenge.
02:59It was remarkable.
03:01We were this creative group making this movie all together.
03:05When there's that collaborative energy, it's just, you know, it's gold.